Glad we ended up in Obama’s America

Most of my Facebook friends are to the left on the American political spectrum, as are most of the media sites I follow on Twitter. While I had temporarily hid some people from my news feed on Facebook who were posting political statements to their page (some of their posts were getting overwhelming), some links to political articles did make it through to my news feed. This article, “A Victory for Obama and Obama’s America” on the New Yorker by John Cassidy caught my eye.

In this article the author provides a play-by-play account of what was happening election night in terms of the results. Also, the author provides examples of how Obama won the election, and through what groups (minorities, the young, secular, unmarried), and how Romney’s voters were predominately older and married.

From there, the article relates the above to an implicit rejection of the GOP, and an “insular, backward-looking, feed-the-rich, extremism.” Which, though I’ve agreed with this statement in the past, seems harsh and very dismissive of everyone who voted for Romney in this past election.

The article talks about two Americas, and creates a divide that of course already was there, but I was really hoping for the media to try to unite and not point out difference and split this country into two separate Americas, where one is driven by capitalist means and the other through populist rhetoric.

Obama ran a great campaign—as he was eager to point out in his acceptance speech. During his speech he did call for unity as Americans. I’d like to question the role of the media in uniting America, as I believe that today it tries to play on the rhetoric of a battle, contrary to unity and understanding.

That being said, I believe that “Obama’s America” gives America a better chance of being united, because it has successfully positioned itself as an America that is accepting, inclusive, and moderate as opposed to “Romney’s America” of tradition, religion, and business. But now it’s time to move away from what defined these campaigns and political parties and try to unite and work to solve the problems of our nation as Obama said in his election night speech.